A VISIT TO THE CITY OF THE KHALIFS. silent river banks, with a quick eye and elastic step, somewhat after the fashion of the jerboa of the plain, but with a lustrous glance and a movement of grace which belongs to woman only. It is only on arriving at Baghdad, that the European coming from the north, either by the Tigris or the Euphrates, feels that he has at length got fully and really into the East. He has passed towns that are Oriental, houses and garments that are Oriental, and jamis and menarehs that are Oriental, yet the very greensward and every flowering plant reminds him of home; but, at Baghdad, there is no longer any greensward; and the rich deep green of the first long forest of palmtrees that he has met, with the bright blossoms of pomegranate and orange bursting into view below, lend to what else is Oriental that only which can fill up the cup of his anticipations; and no where does the sun set so beautifully-in such a clear, vivid blue green atmosphere-as behind a boundless level forest of palms. But with these exceptions, which belong to nature and not to art, Baghdad, like most Mohammedan cities, is no longer what it was; its very magnificence is ruinous, and its ruins are crumbling into dust. The condition of a Mohammedan city is, now-a-days, the picture of Mohammedanism itself; and in no one place in the East is there any stay to the universal decay that pervades everything, except where the civilization of Christianity is rising upon the ashes of a faith which has involved in similar ruin the mind of man, the edifices which he constructs, and the country that he inhabits. A FAREWELL. BY EDWARD KENEALY, ESQ. "How woke he from the wildness of that dream? To curse the wither'd heart that would not break."-BYRON. TAKE back the ivy-leaf Yet as this leaf shall be, If e'er thou tread'st again Think of my spirit's bliss, Ah, did I dream of this?- Think, while these simple lines Think-though no more to meet→→→ A PAPER ON PUFFING. THAT this is essentially the age of invention and progression, few will, we imagine, be tempted to deny. Horses are superseded by hot water, favourable winds by machinery, sails by paddles, and "fair trade" by companies. The Indian-rubber which used to efface our false lines now protects our weak loins; the wood with which we were wont to light our fires now paves our streets; the ice, which in the good old times used to come in its season, is now forced by a congeries of salts; and the skating, that was erewhile compelled to await a temperature calculated below zero, now takes place in an atmosphere of eighty degrees, when a primrose-coloured glove is "all too heating;" vessels which have been sunk "ten fathoms deep" for years, are blown up again by gunpowder, and a vomit successfully applied to old Ocean, which had hitherto been principally noted for its capacity of retention; beaver hats are manufactured out of old silk dresses, shoes blacked with French varnish, swamps turned into squares, and pauperism and poverty put down by act of parliament. It is, in sooth, a surprising century; but we wish to make light of a subject which, philosophically considered, might become ponderous; and as to the moralist, even although he may chance to be a merry one, no subject is too slight for consideration, we have, on this occasion, fixed our attention on the immense and ingenious advance of the science of Puffing. Do you smile, reader, at our application of the term "science?" and do you think that we should have said "trade?" We will reply to your look in the words of the celebrated French grammarian, when he was dying in the arms of his friend,-" L'un et l'autre se dit." Is there no science, we will ask in our turn, in the elaborately-worded and elegantly epigrammatized announcements of Mr. George Robins? Is there not deep-seated science in the concoction of a modern playbill? Is nothing to be said in praise of the "Emporiums" and "Repositories" and "Divans," which formerly were mere insignificant tailors', toymen's, and tobacconists' shops? Is the transition from the barber's pole to the revolving bust of the perruquier, nothing?-the leap from the bare counter-traversed shop to the carpeted and mirrored saloon of trade, nothing? Are they not, one and all, practical puffs, intended to invest commerce with elegance, and to throw a halo round extravagance? Who, then, shall cavil at the word of which we have availed ourselves? or refuse to admit that we are treating of science, and that our dictum should be respected accordingly? Fiat justitia, ruat cœlum ! In order to illustrate our position, we had prepared a list of proofs in every branch of the science, (we love the word because it recurs so naturally,) but, alas! it became almost as long as the pension-list, ere we had registered one half the variety of puffs which bore testimony to the inventiveness of speculative mankind, and we were consequently compelled, however reluctantly, to follow the lead of Mr. Whittle Harvey, and cut it short; to content ourselves, on the present occasion, with doing injustice to our "very worthy and approved good masters," the booksellers, who, for copiousness of fancy, daringuess of inference, and well-turned periods, are unapproachable by all the rest of the craft; and to present our readers with a specimen of the-Puff Literary. But we beg pardon! The Puff Literary means nothing, says nothing, proves nothing sufficiently special or definite, to give to THE Trade its proper supremacy of station in the world of puffs. We must work closer to our text; we must divide and sub-divide the Puff Literary, in order to bring out its several excellences, and by no means attempt to embody in one generic appellation so various and ramificatory a branch of the science: the Puff Literary is hydra-headed, and every Cerberus should have a sop. It may be classified thus: The PUFF PRELIMINARY; the PUFF NEGATIVE; the PUFF MYSTERIOUS; the PUFF DEPRECATORY; and the PUFF PUGNACIOUS. The Puff Preliminary is known to the gentlemen irreverently designated as "printer's devils," by the less euphonous title of "a blind advertisement." The most eligible position for this production is the columns of a morning paper,—the most economical, the fly-leaf of a periodical appertaining to the bibliopole who is to produce the work; and in any and every case, it is a matter which induces (and most justly!) his best invention. It is the publisher's first shot-the discharge which commences the campaign-and like other experienced generals, who deal with blood instead of ink, and with lives instead of sentences, he sometimes pays dearly for it. As its name implies, it precedes the appearance of a work, and infers a second-sight which cannot fail to excite the admiration and curiosity of the good-tempered, easy, gullible portion of the public. One individual in The Trade was for years unrivalled in the art and mystery of Puffing, and most deservedly did he enjoy the reputation which he had, as after-events proved, very expensively earned; a younger Professor started forth, and made a bold push for the chair of President only a short time since, but his endeavour to get up a successful opposition failed lamentably; for although he displayed considerable talent for a beginner, as a matter of rivalry it was a signal failure; for of Mr. truly said that "None but himself can be his parallel!" it may be But we digress; and will at once apologize, by introducing our readers to the PUFF PRELIMINARY. "We understand that the forthcoming novel, entitled Fitz-Henry Fitz-Hildebrand,' is the chef-d'œuvre of its accomplished author, whose long and intimate acquaintance with the most refined and aristocratic society renders him perhaps the fittest person in England to paint them in their habits as they live.' We have been led to expect some piquant passages on Parisian exclusiveness; and here we know that the author will be at home, as his name has long been an open sesame' to every salon in the French capital. His late visit to Palermo will also, doubtless, throw some light on the complicated sulphur question, for his powers of observation have long been generally understood and acknowledged; and it is self-evident that a dash of statistics cannot fail to help a work of fiction very materially with the thinking public; while a distinct and peculiar charm will be flung over its pages, by the graphic descriptions of scenery and manners which are, we have been assured, most admirably blent with the thread of the fable, thus min gling the real and the ideal in a manner which cannot fail to render the work one of universal interest."-Evening Paper. Three days after this modest paragraph, the book is published; and then the PUFF NEGATIVE appears in one or two popular journals, also purporting to be an extract from the "Evening Paper" which, for obvious reasons, is never specified. Here it is:" It is not true that the talented author of FitzHenry Fitz-Hildebrand' has disposed of the copyright of that charming work to his publisher for 10007. We have authority for stating that no such arrangement was ever contemplated; nor is it a fact that the duel, fought the day before yesterday at Wimbledon, had any connexion whatever with the contents of these witty volumes." The public, and especially the young ladies, must be hard-hearted indeed, if they do not run wild after a book which was supposed to have cost the publisher upwards of a shilling a line, and had even been accused of causing an attempt at murder; but, should they still hesitate, the PUFF MYSTERIOUS must inevitably bring them to their senses: "It has been hinted, that a certain noble duke, whose splendid establishment has long been the admiration of the bon ton, and whose exquisite taste in the fine arts is universally acknowledged by the foreign cognoscenti, has been unable to conceal from himself that certain passages in the new novel just published in Street, bear reference to himself; and that some of them are highly calculated to cause a rupture with the beautiful and fascinating Contessa, to whom he has been so long devoted; and who had hitherto flattered herself that the details of her liaison with his Grace, had been a profound secret. It would be well if a certain lordling, who resides not a hundred miles from Grosvenor Square, and who has also sat for his picture in this literary portrait-gallery, were to profit by the witty and caustic lessons of the author." Then comes the PUFF DEPRECATORY, looking like the spontaneous sentiment of the editor of the journal in which it appears; when he is, in reality, as guiltless of tormenting himself about the fate of the book as though it had never been written. "We sincerely trust that the public will not suffer its mind to be biassed by the report now current, that the novel entitled FitzHenry Fitz-Hildebrand,' which has excited so great and universal a sensation in the most distinguished circles, is not the production of its reputed author, but that they will read the work, and judge fairly for themselves. All that we have to say upon the subject is, that if it be not written by our old favourite, another literary Brutus has risen up, who will make even him look to his laurels." But the PUFF PUGNACIOUS, is the crowning effort of the whole. It is a mingled combat, where the smooth and polished small sword is occasionally laid aside to make way for the rough and heavy mace, and then resumed, as if in very A PAPER ON PUFFING. scorn of the weakness of the enemy. The public have only to look on, while the two or more publishers who wish to cram different editions of the same work down the throats of their purchasers bring each their respective property into notice, by endeavouring to depreciate that of the rival party; and we will give the "amber-immortalization" of our own article to a specimen of two literary duck-puddles in a storm, in order to work out our position intelligibly. The correspondence duly appears in the shape of a succession of advertisements in some influential morning paper; and thus it runs : NO. I. LIFE OF JACK THE GIANT-KILLER. Mr. Hawk will publish on the first of next month, with the magazines, in two neat 8vo volumes, "The Life, Correspondence, and Writings, of Jack the Giant-killer;" being the cream and essence of the large quarto edition in three thick vols., published by Mr. Owl, and sold at 37. 3s. Mr. Hawk, in addition to the most salient points of the original history of this distinguished individual, carefully and judiciously selected from a mass of crude and uninteresting matter, and the talented preface appended to the quarto vols. by the well-known Mr. Firefly, is happy to be enabled to enrich his own edition with several highly important facts connected with the heroic Jack, never "Fe-fo-fum" of the first before published, and a correct translation, furnished by one of his immediate descendants, of the appalling giant with whom he came in contact. In two vols. post 8vo, neatly bound in cloth, price six shillings and sixpence. NO. II.-LIFE OF JACK THE GIANT-KILLER. Mr. Owl has been surprised by the appearance of an advertisement, setting forth the intention of Mr. Hawk to publish on the first day of the approaching month, a spurious, abridged, and imperfect history of "Jack the Giant-killer." Mr. Owl is sorry that Mr. Hawk should condescend at once to peril the reputation of that truly great and noblehearted man, and his own claim to probity. The preface, written by Mr. Firefly, and forming a most attractive feature in the elegant quarto edition of Mr. Owl, was never meant as an appendage to the meagre volumes of Mr. Hawk; and Mr. Owl would venture to inquire upon what code of honour Mr. Hawk bases his literary theft? Mr. Owl would also take the liberty of asking what Mr. Hawk understands by the "cream and essence" of a work, which is admirable throughout? and of which every page is essentially necessary to the perfect appreciation and comprehension of the whole? and where Mr. Hawk has been fortunate enough to make the acquaintance of one of the "immediate descendants" of a hero who died childless? A few copies of the legitimate edition of "The Life, Correspondence, and Writings of Jack the Giant Killer," in 3 vols. small quarto, price £3 3s., containing ALL the circumstances of the public and private career of that eminent person, are still on sale. NO. III.-LIFE OF JACK THE GIANT KILLER. Mr. Hawk cannot see without pain that his endeavour to save the public from one of the most barefaced impositions ever attempted in |